


Smell Like I Sound

by Sineala



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Adventures (Comics), Marvel Adventures: Avengers, Marvel Adventures: Iron Man
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Kittens, M/M, Pheromones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-16
Updated: 2014-10-16
Packaged: 2018-02-21 10:24:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2464835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sineala/pseuds/Sineala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carol likes Jess a lot. That's not the weird part. The weird part is that Carol likes Jess a lot more when Jess isn't in the room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smell Like I Sound

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Polski available: [Zapach dźwięku (Smell Like I Sound)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5075023) by [LoboBathory](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoboBathory/pseuds/LoboBathory)



> Here is a story about the downsides of superpowers! I am aware that Carol is not actually in MA:A. I regard this as an oversight that I am henceforth correcting; I have made a few minor elements of Carol's background a little different than in 616. Jess is actually in MA:IM (#10), and the use of her powers there is what led me to come up with this particular story; I am assuming that MA:IM and MA:A can be smooshed into the same canon.
> 
> Also, the Steve/Tony is only in the background; sorry to disappoint anyone.

Carol finds the Avengers -- or rather, they find her -- a couple weeks after the weirdest and best time of her life, and there's space, and there's aliens and... now she can fly. Actually fly. She doesn't even need a plane. The other powers are nice, sure, but flight is obviously everything she's ever wanted since she was a little kid sneaking books about astronauts into bed to read by flashlight under the covers. She can _fly_. It is, literally, a dream come true. 

When she walks into Avengers Tower, she likes Tony Stark instantly, because she takes one look at his room of Iron Man suits and knows that he feels exactly the same way she does about flight. He's human. His powers are only what he's given himself, and he gave himself the sky. This, she thinks, is a good life decision.

So she joins the team. She punches MODOC in the face, which she thinks is probably some kind of rite of passage. Storm and Giant-Girl begin to include her in their weekly get-togethers at Starbucks where they sip iced coffee and complain good-naturedly about the last time dinosaurs stampeded down the city streets. (Storm always keeps the coffee cold even without the ice. It's a neat trick.) She's not really sure about Bruce yet, but the Hulk is beginning to grow on her. She banters with Spider-Man. She still can't quite get over that she's working with Captain America, who is really real and really alive. But she knows she's really, truly a part of the team when Wolverine starts mentioning her in his grumblings. She's got it made.

So it's working out.

And then Spider-Woman joins, and it kind of isn't.

Tony floated the idea around, informally; apparently this woman Jessica Drew -- Spider-Woman -- was a private investigator he'd hired back when he'd been looking for his father. Because, as Carol has learned, nothing in the Avengers' lives is ever normal or easy, Jessica Drew's help had apparently turned into slipping on her Spider-Woman costume and helping him fight the Chameleon when the father she thought she'd found for him really hadn't been the right man at all. Clearly she was a woman of many talents.

Her PI cases had dried up, Tony told them, over dinner, and she'd been a great help to him once, and what did they think about having another Avenger? Everyone was in favor. Of course.

The first time she meets Jess, Carol thinks maybe she's just under the weather.

"Hi," the woman says, holding out a hand. She's in a red and yellow costume, facemask pushed off. "I'm Spider-Woman, but, please, call me Jess." She smiles, a wide, friendly smile -- a really pretty smile, actually -- and honestly, Carol thinks she looks a little nervous; she's probably worried about impressing the team. God, she's pretty. Distractingly pretty, actually, what with the bright green eyes and dark hair that looks so soft and she's tall and leggy and coolly self-possessed in a way that reminds Carol of all the popular girls she never would have had a chance with in college.

Then Carol takes her hand and... well... she kind of wants to shudder. Like Spider-Woman brought actual spiders and they're crawling all over her. Something just feels... off. But, dammit, she's an Avenger, she's a captain in the Air Force, and she's definitely had worse. She can be polite. She probably just doesn't feel well.

So she smiles back, doggedly ignoring the feeling, and for an instant Jess' face melts into something like a tentative relief.

"I'm Carol. Carol Danvers. Nice to meet you, Jess."

"So what's your other name?" She asks the question the way someone else might ask _what's your sign_ ; it kind of feels like a pick-up line, and for the life of her Carol can't decide whether she wants it to be. Jess is, let's be honest, almost exactly perfectly her type, but... but... Carol just feels _wrong_ about her. Wrong and right at the same time. It's strange.

"Oh! Uh." Carol smiles. "Captain Marvel. Tried 'Ms. Marvel' for a week, but it didn't seem like it was quite right for me. And then, well, Cap--" she still can't get over how it's okay to call Steve Rogers _Cap_ , or even weirder, _Steve_ , like _Captain America_ is her personal friend-- "he said I'd earned my rank too, and he didn't mind there being two captains on the team."

"That's because he's actually a private," Tony puts in with a smile, wandering past them with a slice of pizza in each hand. He winks at them conspiratorially. "Shh, it's a secret."

"Tony!" Steve says, aggrieved, from the other side of the room. "You know perfectly well that was a cover identity--"

"I just like seeing your face every time I demote you," Tony says, laughing, and he pushes the pepperoni slice into Steve's hands.

Spider-Man, affixed to the wall, shoots a web out, snatches the piece of pizza away from Steve, and begins to eat it. "Ten second rule!" he says, mask pushed up to his nose, mouth full of pizza.

"It wasn't on the floor!"

"Mmph. 'Floor' is relative," Spider-Man says, and he crawls to the ceiling as if this somehow proves his point.

Jess watches them in bemusement. "Is it always like this?"

Carol considers this. "No," she says. "Usually it's much weirder."

Jess smiles at her, and Carol smiles back. Her stomach twists with nausea, and not in any remotely good way. She's really going to be sick.

"Excuse me."

She hurries off to the bathroom, takes a few deep breaths, splashes water on her face, and... feels a lot better. Huh. Well. That's good.

When she walks back in, everyone's having a great time. Spider-Man is dangling upside-down from the ceiling, talking animatedly to Jess -- it's clearly some kind of spider-bonding -- and Logan, Bruce, Tony and Steve are all gathered around her, laughing and grinning. If there's something off about her, none of them feel it. It must just be Carol. Everyone else likes Jess just fine.

Well, she's made her introductions, and now she can go sit with Jan and Ororo, who are talking much more sedately in the corner. She feels fine the rest of the evening. It must have been something she ate.

* * *

Saturday mornings are pancakes in the kitchen, and frankly it's a good thing that every single one of the Avengers likes getting up for pancakes because -- as Carol discovered the first morning -- it is really hard to sleep when the Hulk is announcing his need for maple syrup. (The Hulk's whispers can be heard on the neighboring floors.)

The day after Jess moves in is a Saturday. Tony is flipping pancakes in the air with a flick of his wrist and making it look easy. He's wearing fuzzy blue Captain America sleep pants and a too-large _John Carter of Mars_ t-shirt that Carol could have sworn Steve was wearing two days ago. "Cooking's a lot like engineering," Tony is declaiming to the room at large. "Very precise. Also both of them involve a lot of fire and-- oh, hey, Jess, you made it. How do you take your pancakes? Chocolate chip, blueberry, or plain?"

"Chocolate chip," Jess says.

Carol turns and sees Jess in the doorway and her mouth goes dry. Jess has clearly just gotten up; her hair's a little mussed and she's wearing a nightgown in red and yellow, a lot like the lines of her costume, now rumpled and halfway hitched up so that one long leg is visible. It's not meant to be seductive, and Carol feels weirdly like some fainting Victorian getting turned on by bare ankles, but dear _God_ she's pretty. Carol looks down at her own faded USAF t-shirt and worn fleece pants and tries not to feel hopelessly dorky in comparison.

"Excellent choice," Tony says. "Here, let me just finish Carol's first pancake--"

As Tony returns to peering at the pancake, Carol takes a deep breath and pats the empty seat next to her. "Come sit with me, Jess!" she says, and she hopes Jess actually wants to, because if she doesn't Carol is going to feel so dumb, and God, she hasn't felt this stupid and tongue-tied over a pretty girl since maybe high school.

Jess smiles at her, and-- Carol just feels sick. Not pleasantly-nervous sick. No, it's actually-sick sick. Her stomach roils. Not again. Geez, of all the rotten luck.

"Hey, marvelous captain," Jess says, grinning, and that's got to be good, right, cute nicknames? God, Carol feels so sick. A wave of disgusted nausea passes through her. "How'd you sleep?"

Carol bites back any one of half a dozen immediate innuendo-laden responses, because, right, team breakfast, and also with her luck Jess is probably one hundred percent straight. "Fine, thanks. You? First night in the Tower, huh?"

"Yep," Jess says, grinning. "It was great. Slept like a baby. Glad for the soundproofing."

Steve turns an interesting shade of red, which is really weird, since Jess' new room is actually between Carol's and Tony's, not Steve's; Steve's room is on the other side of Tony's. Maybe Spider-Man had been swinging down the hall accidentally knocking over vases again and Steve had to stop him. Steve and Spidey had both looked kind of embarrassed about that last week. Carol guesses it was probably something like that again. She probably slept through it. She'd slept through it last week too.

"I, uh," Carol says, vague and confused. "Sure. Yeah. I bet."

Tony, who for some reason is smirking, flips the pancake out onto a plate and slides it down the counter. "Carol, your pancake."

Carol looks down at the pancake. She looks up at Jess, who is smiling at her, soft and pretty and encouraging. She can't eat this. She's going to be sick.

She pushes the plate away from herself. "Actually," she says, "I'll take one in a bit, I'm not hungry right now."

Logan stabs through the entire plastic plate with one extended claw and Tony sighs the sigh of a man who has had to replace too many dishes.

"Your loss, Danvers," Logan says, sliding the plate toward himself.

Carol looks up again. Jess is still smiling, but the smile has started to waver.

* * *

So there was a mad scientist and somehow Jan's boyfriend Hank wasn't storing the Pym Particles as securely as they could have been stored and there was a break-in and down the street there was a pet shop and Carol's a little unclear on the specific details at that point, but anyway, now there are giant kittens in the streets.

Giant angry kittens.

Well, they're not really angry, most of them, but giant playful kittens are also a problem, Carol thinks, as the tortoiseshell in the very front bats at a streetlight, which bends in half. And they're going to get angry when the Avengers start poking at them, which they kind of have to do.

"Right," Cap says, frowning. "Listen up, Avengers! Dr. Pym has some kind of machine set up at a roadblock two streets down and to the left, and he says he can reverse the transformation; we just have to get the kittens there."

Spider-Man cackles. "We're herding cats."

"We're going to see if we can steer them," Cap says.

Tony puts his faceplate down; the eyeslits light up. He spreads his arms wide. "Okay, team, comms on and everyone up, up, and away! Fliers, make sure everyone who needs a ride gets one!"

Like it's something they've practiced a thousand times, Cap steps backward into Iron Man's open arms, bracing a foot on one of Iron Man's jet boots. Cap hefts his shield, Iron Man puts an arm around Cap's waist, Cap puts his unshielded arm around Iron Man, and then they're forty feet up, over the head of the first of the giant kittens. Carol whistles in admiration. Nice move.

Wordlessly, Storm grabs Wolverine's arm and pulls him up with her, her cape flapping in the winds as they rise. Mutant solidarity, Carol supposes. Giant-Girl begins to grow; Spider-Man shoots out a web line to the shoulder of the nearest kitten and swings off. Bruce grins at Carol over his shoulder before turning back, Hulking out, and leaping to the top of Spider-Man's kitten in a single bound.

And then it's just her and Jess on the ground.

"Aren't you going to fly?" Carol asks. "Newbies first." Jess' costume has little wings on it; of course she can fly, right?

Jess is looking at her a little uncomfortably, a little awkwardly. Her mask is down, so Carol can't actually see her eyes to confirm this, but she shifts her weight like she's embarrassed. Carol realizes that she doesn't actually know what Jess' powers all _are_ \-- she can fight, and she's strong, she can cling to things like Spider-Man does, and she's got something she calls venom blasts, but that's really all Carol knows.

"I, um," Jess says. "I can only glide. Can't really fly. If you get me up there I'm good, though."

"Can do."

_I am a professional_ , Carol thinks. _I am a captain in the United States Air Force and I am an Avenger and I am very professionally going to grab my very attractive teammate and carry her pressed to my body. For the good of New York._

Cap and Iron Man might have practiced this before, but she and Jess sure haven't. Jess is a little shorter than her, maybe an inch, and Carol steps in behind her and gracelessly wraps both arms around her torso and oh God, she's right here, and now is really not the time to think about anything like that. Jess drops her hands, locks her fingers around Carol's wrists, and yeah, no. So not thinking about that right now.

"Take us up," Jess says.

Carol grins. "Going, going, gone."

And then they're in the sky. Carol's so new to this that she hasn't ever carried anyone before, not like this, and she's wobbling a little as she flies, off-balance, and she hopes to God she doesn't drop Jess, and Jess is kind of squirming against her and it's really distracting and they need to practice this more if they're ever going to try this again which would be good but also bad because Carol kind of isn't dealing well with this.

"Here's good," Jess says, and wriggles free -- is she doing this on purpose? she's not doing this on purpose, is she? -- to let herself float down to the nearest feline. "Thanks for the lift!"

Carol sighs to herself, shakes her head to try to clear it, and heads for the back of another cat. Okay. She can do this.

It turns out, Cap says over the comm, that they can kind of herd the cats -- or rather, that they can send blasts in whatever direction they don't want the cats going, like a giant game of cat pinball. Up ahead, Iron Man is directing a cat with careful repulsor bursts and Cap, standing behind him, has bonked a cat in the nose with his shield. Just ahead of her, Jess has picked up the blasting trick and is doing something similar with her own venom blasts. Carol lifts her hand, fires a photon blast, and watches in satisfaction as the cats that were wandering away now shy in her direction.

_Here, kitty, kitty._

The Avengers who are less equipped to do this have their own methods. Wolverine is springing from cat to cat and nudging them somehow. Storm has made a whirling tornado, holding her hands high, floating the cats in front of her. Giant-Girl, clearly the luckiest one, is carrying two kittens by the scruffs of their necks and grinning. Spider-Man has some kind of cat-bridle web-thing going on, and honestly Carol has no idea what the Hulk is doing, but it seems to involve yelling "Hulk pet kittens!" a lot.

But it's working. They and the herd of cats are down one block, then two, then turning the corner, and she can see some scientists waving frantically near a giant gleaming machine, and they've almost made it--

Then the thirty-foot-tall Siamese next to the tabby that Jess is currently standing on meows loudly and bats her off like she's just some cat toy. And Jess goes flying. 

Not flying.

Falling.

Her arms are outstretched, and Carol can see her trying to right herself, to catch an updraft, but she's not finding one--

The Siamese bats Jess again, and now she's heading straight for Carol--

There isn't time to even think about catching her, or do anything except take the hit, hard, and then Carol's arms lock around her in some kind of reflex, thank God, and they're flipping over backwards into the air but at least they're going _up_ , and through the dark blur that is Jess' hair whipping into Carol's face Carol thinks she sees some of the cats starting to turn the other way, to follow them, the interesting new flying cat toy--

"Shoot the ground," Jess grits out. "Get past them. Shoot the ground, turn them, turn them--"

"I can't!" Carol calls back over the wind. "I'm holding you!"

"Then hold _me_ and _I'll_ shoot!" Jess yells, and Carol tightens her grip.

They flip up and over the top of the nearest building, bleeding off the rest of the momentum from the hit, cornering at a speed Carol can handle easily but that, from the tension on Jess' face, Carol would guess Jess isn't used to gliding at. Still, Jess holds out her hands and lays down a line of fire and the cats, well, turn tail and run. Right back to the machine.

"Perfect!" Carol yells, exulting, and she works an arm free to lift a fist into the air, and at that point she figures out where her other arm is and, basically, yeah, she's been groping Jess in the name of protecting New York from giant kittens. Whoops. "I, um. Uh," she says, inarticulately, and slides her hand a little further down Jess' torso in a way that she hopes is somehow discreet. "Sorry about that."

"Nothing to be sorry for," Jess says, and then she's twisting around to face Carol and, hey, Carol could _kiss her_ , that's how close she is, and no, bad thought, bad thought. "I think you did great."

And then Jess is smiling at her and Carol just feels _sick _again, weird and nauseated and like something is crawling all over her skin, and maybe she took that corner too fast after all. Whatever.__

"Glad to hear it," Carol says, managing a smile back, and then Jess gathers up, feet against Carol's thighs in an upside-down crouch, and pushes off of her in midair, throwing her arms out wide and gliding all the way down.

Carol, because she is not a sixteen-year-old walking swamp of hormones, doesn't watch Jess twist gracefully in the air and arch into a landing.

Oh, all right, maybe she does.

Her stomach's feeling better now, she thinks.

The last of the giant kittens meows in the distance.

* * *

She likes Jess. She likes Jess a _lot_.

God damn it.

She should have asked Tony if the Avengers had fraternization policies before she joined; she remembers the charter mentioning the protection of secret identities, as well as some kind of mandatory community service hours, but she can't remember anything more than that.

Jess is probably straight anyway.

And she just... she keeps feeling weird around her. Carol has no idea what that is. A coincidence, sure. Just bad luck. But it doesn't make it easier that she feels sick every time Jess smiles at her. It's been a long time since she's had a crush on anyone quite this massive. That's probably it.

Carol scowls, strips the rest of her uniform off, and heads for the shower.

She hears the shower turn on next door; Jess is showering too. One wall away. She remembers Jess pressing up against her.

Maybe she should make that a cold shower.

* * *

"So," Jan says, her eyes darting around the table, "I'm curious. What's the most annoying thing about your superpowers?"

They're having a girls' night in, which apparently involves popcorn, Jan and Ororo's favorite comedies -- who knew Ororo liked _Mean Girls_? -- and actually painting everyone's nails, which is a bonding experience Carol has never actually had, but now her fingernails are red and glittery. Jan assured them that this was better than what had happened the time the guys got the run of the place, which somehow led to a guy named Batroc the Leaper setting them all up on blind dates. Yeah. Life in the Avengers.

It's soda all round; Carol had offered Jess a beer, but Jess declined on the grounds of being immune to poisons, which apparently include alcohol. Carol suspects that's Jess' answer to Jan's question.

Carol thinks about it. "My powers are so new that I really can't say if it gets more annoying than this, but sometimes if people startle me, I float."

"Oh, God," Jess says, in knowing sympathy, "you too?" She holds out her soda can and clinks it with Carol's. Their fingers brush, just a little, and Carol shivers.

Carol frowns. "I thought you couldn't fly."

"I can't, really," Jess admits, "which is what makes it even more pathetic. It's like a surprised little flappy hop. Six inches, maybe." She laughs.

"I have never had this problem," intones Ororo, and Jan just _stares_ at her until a reluctant smile spreads across Ororo's face. "But sometimes when I am startled I produce small rainclouds."

It's kind of a cute mental picture, Storm surrounded by tiny clouds, and Carol takes another sip of her soda so she's not actually laughing at Ororo.

"I want to watch the movie again!" Jan announces. "On Wednesdays, we wear pink! Ororo, support me in this."

"You wear pink every day," Ororo says. "As Giant-Girl."

"Yes," Jan says, "including Wednesdays," and she hits play on the DVD menu again, looking so pleased with herself that there's really no way anyone can stop her. Carol didn't like the movie as much as the rest of them did, but she's learned pretty quickly that you can't not want Jan to be happy. Jan's happiness is like _magic_.

Plus, Jan is entirely responsible for the design of Carol's superhero costume, which Carol really, really likes. So, you know, it's good.

They pick themselves up and head to the couch. Jess sits next to Carol, and her arm slides over the back of the couch, and she's smiling and Carol's trying to decide if that's Classic Date Move #1 or Horrible Straight Girl Coincidence when she notices she's feeling weird again. About Jess. Wrong-weird.

And the strangest thing is, it's not just her. Jan's looking at them, and her ebullient smile has dimmed a little; Ororo's face has gone unreadable.

"Oh, wait!" Jess says, pushing herself off the couch. "I need another soda first. Anyone want one?"

And then she's off into the kitchen, and as soon as she's gone Carol just feels better, and Jan's smile is at its normal wattage, and Ororo's face is back to its commanding serenity.

_Do you guys feel weird about Jess?_ she wants to ask, but that would be a really bizarre question, because of course they all _like_ Jess.

Carol likes Jess.

She doesn't understand what's happening here.

* * *

Carol knocks on Jess' door the next morning.

"Okay," she says, as soon as Jess opens the door, "if you're not busy today I've got an idea. I was thinking about how I had to carry you, when we had the giant kittens. I talked to Cap the other day, and he said that tactically he was considering pairing us together, so I thought maybe we should work on coming up with something like that, making it easier, practicing lifts, so we'll be prepared." _So I don't end up accidentally groping you. So that maybe if I keep doing this the excitement will wear off and I will stop having incredibly inappropriate thoughts about you._

She gets it all out in a rush and hopes she doesn't sound too much like a nervous teenager trying to ask the cool popular girl out on a date.

Jess blinks. "Good morning, Carol," she says, finally. And then she smiles. "And, yes, I'd love to."

After breakfast they're on the roof of the Tower, because why not? Who doesn't like heights? They're standing face-to-face, costumes on. Jess smiles; it looks a little nervous.

"How do you want to play this?"

"Let me think," Carol says. "You could--" _oh God_ \-- "you could try hugging me? That way we'd both be able to grip each other. It would be more stable than what we tried against the kittens. I don't need my hands to fly."

_Sure, make it sound like you're in this for the tactical benefits._

"Sounds good," Jess says, and then she's smiling and stepping forward and basically hugging Carol and all of a sudden Carol just _gags_ and she's going to be sick, and God, it feels like something's crawling all over her, it's worse than every other time this has happened, God. What's wrong with her? Maybe something's really wrong with her.

"I can't," Carol says, and she's pushing away from Jess, half-flying, until she's a good ten feet away and she can breathe again without wanting to throw up. "I can't, Jess, I'm sorry, I don't know what's _wrong_ with me, I'm going to be sick, I feel awful right now. Maybe I should get myself checked out."

When she looks back, Jess has ripped her mask off and is staring at her with an expression of absolute forlorn dismay.

"You're not immune," Jess says, thickly, and she looks like she's about to cry. "You were covering all this time. Fuck. I am so, so sorry. I swear, Carol, I thought you were-- I thought I'd finally found someone who was immune."

"Immune to what?"

Jess frowns. "Didn't anyone tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Carol asks, warily.

"About the pheromones." Jess sighs. "Tony knows. I thought he would have said something to the team; they did a number on Pepper the first time I met her. But I guess he didn't mention."

"What pheromones?"

Jess sits down hard on the sunlit concrete, and even though her stomach is still twisted in knots Carol comes back and sits next to her.

Jess gives her a long look. "Yeah, that's why I thought you were immune. Things like that." She sighs. "One of my powers. I produce pheromones. It's... only partially controlled. They-- they make men like me. It's been... useful, in the job I've had. You know, I bat my eyelashes, men literally fall over themselves to do what I want. Sometimes it's things like letting me out of prison. Anything I want."

"I can see how that would be helpful," Carol agrees.

Jess heaves another sigh and puts her chin in her gloved hand. "There's a flip side: they make women _hate_ me. Usually women just feel strange, like they don't trust me." She eyes Carol consideringly. "The nausea's a new one, though. Maybe it's the Kree DNA in you."

Carol stares, horrified. "All women? How do you even make _friends_?"

Jess raises an eyebrow, like she's surprised anyone has ever cared enough to ask her that question, and screw the nausea, Carol just wants to hug her. "Poorly. Also most of my friends are men. Even that's hard, though, because then -- are they my friends because they wanted to be, or because I wanted them to be? So mostly I don't. Have friends."

"That must be awful."

"I try not to think about it," Jess says, evenly, like it doesn't bother her, except of course it must. "I have a sort of chemical perfume," she continues. "It masks the pheromones, but I try not to wear it if I can get away with it because if I actually need to tactically convince a man to do something, I won't be able to."

Carol nods. "That makes sense. So all the--" she waves her hand in the air-- "general pheromones, was that because you were nervous to meet us? That kind of thing?"

It had been almost entirely gone in combat; Carol guesses that Jess doesn't get combat nerves. But that didn't explain the rest of it. Is Jess nervous about the entire rest of her life?

Jess gives her a weak smile and then looks away. "That part was, yeah. At the beginning. The rest of it, um. It-- it happens when I'm with someone I, uh. Someone I like." And then she looks up at Carol, shy and awkward.

And Carol can't help it; she starts laughing, delighted.

"Oh, thank God," she says. "I thought you were _straight_ , you've been _killing me_ , oh, thank _fuck_ , Jess, does this mean I can ask you out?"

Jess is staring at Carol, mouth open, like Carol has stolen everything she was maybe thinking of saying and said it faster and now she has no words left. It's really cute. It's really goddamn cute. "You were listening, right?" she asks. "You heard the part where I explained that I possess the nearly-uncontrollable ability to physically repulse you?"

Carol waves a dismissive hand. "Fuck biology."

Jess is still staring. "I-- I-- okay. Wow."

"So." Carol leans in. "Coffee date? Bring your perfume?"

Jess looks so awkward and it's almost adorable, because Carol would have sworn that you'd never have gotten that expression on cool, confident PI Jess Drew's face. Apparently all you have to do is ask her out. "I--" Jess swallows. "Is this the part where I admit I've never been on a date with a woman before? I mean, is this a _coffee_ date or a coffee _date_? What do we do? What's the difference?"

Carol grins. "If it's a _coffee_ date, we go out, we get coffee together, I ask you about your exciting life as a private investigator, you can ask me about flying fighter jets if you want, and we have a great time. If it's a coffee _date_ , well--" she ignores the goddamn nausea and puts every ounce of pent-up feeling into the next smile-- "we do exactly the same thing, but then we get home and make out on the couch afterward."

Jess licks her lips. "I'd be up for that."

"I," Carol says, "am so glad to hear that. You have no idea."

On the way back to her room, she triumphantly punches the air and flies most of the way down the hall.

* * *

They're sipping coffee together, cozied up at one of the little tables in the corner, and Jess has told her all about being a PI -- seriously, the thing with the shapeshifter pretending to be Tony's father was actually relatively mild compared to some of it -- and Carol talked about flight, and about flight, and about flight, and she knows she's kind of a geek, but Jess didn't even look _bored_ and Jess, of course, already understood how wonderful it was to fly. _Can I just keep you for good?_ Carol wonders, and in the back of her mind she cracks U-Haul jokes.

And she hasn't felt sick even once.

Jess leans in and puts her hand on Carol's arm. "You're feeling okay, right? Not sick? Not weird? Let me know."

"Perfectly fine," Carol assures her. "Can't even smell the perfume. Can I ask how-- how the pheromone thing works, anyway? You secrete it?"

Jess nods, with the familiar _I am the world expert on my own biology_ look that Carol recognizes from a lot of the Avengers. "Mm-hmm. Apocrine sweat glands. Just don't put your face in my armpit and you'll probably be good."

Carol thinks back to biology class and is struck with a sudden realization. "That's, uh. That's unfortunately not the only place they're located. I think. Unfortunate for my plans for the evening, anyway."

There, that's the we're-in-a-public-place version of _I had been hoping to go down on you if that's a thing you're into_ , isn't it?

And she sees when Jess gets it, because Jess' eyes go wide. "Oh, hell," Jess says, and she starts laughing. "I guess I've never had to think about that before."

Carol grins. "We'll work something out. Figure it out. We're both smart. Highly motivated. You know."

"And determined." Jess is still laughing, bright-eyed. "This evening? First date, hmm? Such plans."

"Hey," Carol says, "I don't see you objecting to the speed. And you know me. Onward and upward. Faster. Higher."

"I _like_ you." Jess is looking at her, astonished, almost, like this is some wonderful fact she's discovered about the world, brand-new.

"Well, good."

Carol reaches for Jess' hand, and they're standing up together.

* * *

Apparently Carol also floats when she's having _a really good time_.

For someone who swears she hasn't done this before, Jess either has an amazing amount of natural talent or is a very fast learner, because she is really really good. Jess has one hand between Carol's legs, rubbing in perfect little circles, her other hand on Carol's breast, and is still managing to kiss her, wet and hot and exactly right. Carol shuts her eyes, throws her head back, and comes for the first time in something like thirty seconds flat, arching up off the bed.

Literally.

When she opens her eyes they're about a foot from the ceiling, and Carol yelps, surprised.

Jess lifts her head and looks around, unfazed. The hand that was between Carol's thighs still hasn't moved, but her other hand is curled around under Carol, splayed across her back as they float in the middle of Carol's room; Carol's basically holding both of them up in midair.

"Right," Jess says, grinning a wild grin, hair falling into her face. "You want me to keep going?"

"Fuck, yes," Carol breathes.

Jess smiles. "I've got you," she says, and she strokes Carol just _there_ where she's most sensitive. "Lift us up. Bit higher."

Bemused, Carol floats them a little higher and then-- they're sticking to the ceiling. She isn't sure how Jess is sticking without her hands because she can tell -- oh, can she ever tell -- where both of Jess' hands are, maybe she's sticking with her shoulder or her hip or feet or something, but Jess kisses her again and nothing else matters because Jess is kissing her and holding her up so that Carol doesn't even have to float and she's slipping one finger back and forth and another one _in_ , and oh God--

Jess has clearly ruined her for sleeping with anyone who isn't a superhero--

Jess has clearly ruined her for sleeping with anyone who _isn't Jess_ \--

Carol grins and shuts her eyes and she's coming, again and again, and she really is flying--

* * *

"Well," Jess says afterwards, lying on the bed, smiling at her, still flushed from the third orgasm. "That was unexpected. Definitely good, though."

Carol looks up at the hole that she somehow managed to punch _in the goddamn ceiling_ and laughs and laughs, high on endorphins and something that feels a whole lot like love. "The lesbian sex thing, or the property damage thing?"

"Mmm." Jess leans over and kisses her. "Six of one, half dozen of the other. Let's do this again sometime."

"Let's," Carol agrees. "Maybe in an hour or so?"

Jess grins. "Sounds good to me. I'd like some food first though. Omelettes?"

"Omelettes." She likes the way Jess thinks. Also it's late, so probably no one else is up and they can make out in the kitchen.

Jess rolls out of Carol's bed and grabs the first thing on the floor, which happens to be Carol's Air Force shirt. She stares at it, shrugs, and then puts it on, along with her own jeans. Carol savors the odd and pleasant frisson of watching Jess wear her clothing.

When they walk through the living room, Tony lifts his head and stares at them over the back of the couch. He's sitting at the end of the couch, arm stretched along the back cushion, tablet in one hand.

Tony grins when he sees them. "Good date, huh?"

"Um," Carol says, realizing that Jess is, after all, wearing Carol's shirt, and they look exactly like two people who have just gotten out of bed together.

Jess, who clearly has more self-possession in this particular situation, smiles back. "It was a very good date, thanks."

"Mmf," says a fourth person's voice, from the vicinity of the couch, a noise that suggests they're mostly asleep.

Oh, this is awkward. "Tony," Carol starts, "I hadn't realized you had anyone over. I didn't know we were disturbing you." She knows Tony's reputation, everyone does, but he's never brought anyone home since she joined the team, and now she's walked right into it--

"You're not disturbing me," Tony says, easily, and then he pokes at whoever it is who's lying on the couch where Carol can't see them. "He is, though. Come on, Winghead, my leg's completely asleep, sit up."

"Nnn," the voice says, inarticulately, and then the couch creaks, and Steve Rogers is pushing himself up. He blinks a few times and gives Tony the kind of ridiculously sweet smile that Carol suspects she shouldn't be privy to. "Wha?"

Tony smiles back at him just as affectionately. "Carol and Jess. I was right. We owe them toasters."

Steve looks over at them and then back at Tony. "I talked to Northstar about that--" he ignores Tony's squawk of _Northstar?!_ \-- "and he said that the toaster thing was only if you actually got them to, uh, enter into a same-sex relationship. With you. So really you only get a toaster for me." He pokes Tony in the chest.

"Pfft," Tony says. "Toasters for everyone. I like toasters."

Carol stares.

"Oh, come on." Tony grins at Carol's dumbstruck expression. "You didn't really think you were the only gay Eskimo in our tribe, did you?"

Carol's still staring, because _Iron Man_ and _Captain America_ \--?

"I wasn't going to mention it," Jess says.

"You knew?"

Jess grins. "Look, the private investigator gig gives you a lot of... observational skills. And the day I moved in I caught them in a compromising position in the hallway."

"I'm good," Tony says, smugly, and Steve just looks embarrassed, like he had... that first Saturday morning. Oh. "I take it you guys are, uh, good?" Carol can't tell if that means _sorry for not letting you know about the pheromones_ but suspects it's more like _time for a round of kiss-and-tell_.

Carol feels her face grow hot. "I broke the _ceiling_ ," she says, mortified, and Tony laughs.

"That's a new one for me," he says, and he holds out his fist for Jess to fistbump. "Kiss of the Spider-Woman, eh?"

"That's really not what _Kiss of the Spider-Woman_ is about at all," says Jess, sounding like someone who has had to say that sentence far too many times, but she fistbumps him back anyway. "However, I am _excellent_ ," she agrees, with about the same smugness as Tony had.

Steve meets Carol's eyes in embarrassed kinship. "He does this," Steve murmurs. "He does this all the time. I'm very sorry."

Carol's still grinning. "It's okay," she says. "It's good. I'm good. Everything's good," she says, and Jess slings an arm around her and leads her to the kitchen.

In the morning, there's toasters outside all of their doors, and Carol laughs and laughs. Life is _so good_.


End file.
